| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Fawn | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 10 April 1984 (age 40) | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Sailing career | |||||||||||||||
| Class | IKA - Formula Kite | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Benyapa "Fawn" Jantawan (born 10 April 1984) is a real estate agent and an Olympic kite surfer from Thailand. She was the silver medallist at the 19th Asian Games in 2023.
Jantawan was born in 1984 and she took up kiteboarding in about 2008. She started with a three day course and she built up more experience in her spare time. The Professional Kiteboard Riders Association ran an event at her local beach and she decided to enter to find out more about the competition. Later she was the first woman to travel across the Gulf of Thailand from the city of Pattaya back to Hua Hin on a kitefoil. [1]
In 2013 she was on Pingtan Island in China where record breaking prize money and free accommodation had brought in 120 international competitors for the KTA final including local poster girl Chen Jingyue and the Dutch kitefoiler Katja Roose who gave Jantawan and Kathrin Borgwardt difficult competition throughout the week. [2]
In 2017 she was sixth at the World Formula Kite Championships that took place in Muscat in Oman. [3]
Jantawan competed in September 2023 in the postponed 19th Asian Games at Pingtan Island and she took the silver medal. [4] The Games began with the kite competitions at the Ningbo Xiangshan Sailing Centre. The Chinese contestant Jingyue Chen won the event becoming the Asian champion and the bronze medal was gained by Lee Young-eun of South Korea. [4] She will be competing again with Chen in Paris in August 2024 as they were both chosen to be Olympic contestants. [5]
The last chance contest (French Olympic Week) was held in Hyères in April 2024 when the last five Olympic places were the prizes. By this time Juntawari was already in the chosen continental competitors which included Gisela Pulido from Spain, Catalina Turienzo, the Canadian Emily Claire Bugeja, Julie Paturau from Mauritius and Justina Kitchen from New Zealand. [6]
Pingtan Island or Haitan Island is an island of Fuzhou off the east coast of mainland Asia in Pingtan County, Fujian Province, China (PRC), south of the complex estuary of the Min River. It is the largest island in Fujian and the fifth-largest island administered by the People's Republic of China.
The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA), is the only kiteboarding class inside the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). The IKA class rules fall in the category of a development class.
Katja Roose is a Dutch female professional kite surfer.
Gisela Pulido Borrell is a Spanish kitesurfer. In 2004, she became the sport's youngest world champion, at age 10. She has subsequently won multiple world titles.
Formula Kite is the kitesurfing class chosen by World Sailing for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The class features a foil kite and a board with a hydrofoil. The equipment is not one-design, but instead competitors use their choice of approved production equipment. The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) manages the class. The class is for men and women.
Sailing competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics are scheduled to be held from July 28th to August 8th at Marseille Marina. The number of sailors competing across ten different events at these Games has been reduced from 350 to 330, with an equal distribution between men and women. Furthermore, several significant changes are instituted in the sailing program for Paris 2024 to reinforce gender equality and vast diversity among the nations in the qualifying process.
Poema Newland is a French sailor and kitefoiler. She was the European Formula Kite champion in 2021.
Derin Atakan is a Turkish female kitesurfer competing in the Formula Kite class. She qualified to participate at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.
Lauriane Nolot is a French professional surfer. She is a two-time world champion in Formula Kite, winning in both 2023 and 2024. Nolot won a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the inaugural women's Formula Kite event.
Daniela Moroz is an American sailor who became the World champion at Formula Kite six times between 2016 and 2022.
Jessie Kampman is a French Formula Kite surfer. She has won silver medals at the European championships and in 2024 she won a world bronze medal.
Stephanie "Steph" Bridge is a United Kingdom kitesurfer who became the World Formula Kite champion five times between 2009 and 2016. She is the leading figure in the "Team Bridge" family.
Elena Kalinina is a Russian World champion at Formula Kite where competitors use kites to propel small hydrofoils. Kalinina first became a World Champion in 2014 when she was seventeen.
Julia Damasiewicz is a Polish formula kitesurfer. She was the European champion in 2020.
Jingyue Chen is a Chinese Formula Kite professional athlete who became the Asian, and the Asia & Oceania, champion in 2023.
Julie Paturau is the Mauritian-born African champion kitefoiler who qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Annelous Lammerts is a Dutch Formula Kite competitor and designated Olympian. She won the 2022 Hempel World Cup Allianz Regatta and the silver medal at the 2023 Formula Kite European Championships. Lammerts won a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the inaugural women's Formula Kite event.
(María) Catalina "Cata" Turienzo is an Argentine kitesurfer who took silver at the 2023 Pan American Games and a place in the 2024 Olympic Games. She was the 2024 Formula Kite Youth World Champion.
Justina Kitchen is a New Zealand Olympic kitefoiler.
Emily Claire Bugeja is a Canadian kitefoiler who was sixth in the Pan American Games in 2023. She was nominated to compete for Canada at the 2024 Olympics.
